Our Growing Practices
At Besties Cooperative Farm we use ecologically informed practices to increase soil carbon and structure, minimize erosion, and promote biodiversity both above and below ground. Our farm is designed to support the surrounding ecosystem while also providing us with big harvests of nutritional produce.
While we're not certified organic we follow organic practices. We use NO synthetic pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides. To compete with pest pressure and disease we use an integrated management approach. This includes exclusion netting, catch crops, cabbage moth decoys, and interplanting. We integrate hedgerow habitat for our beneficial insect and bird besties to create a thriving, biodiverse, and robust farm.
We focus on a style of regenerative agriculture called no-dig. This method of farming is about disrupting the soil as little as possible to promote soil health and microbial life.
The 4 main principles of no till growing are:
1) No tilling/minimizing soil disturbance
2) Keeping roots in the soil
3) Covering the soil with plants or mulches
4) Feeding the soil with composts
01
No tilling/minimizing disturbance
Instead of tilling the soil to address issues of compaction, weeds, and aeration, we use a combination of techniques such as broadforking, cover cropping, and various weed suppression tactics that have little impact on soil structure.
02
Keeping roots in the soil
When harvesting, crops are cut at the soil line and the roots are left to decompose naturally. Decaying plant roots provide habitat and food for soil microbes, while also increase soil aeration and over time adding carbon.
03
Covering the soil with plants or mulches
Open earth is susceptible to damage from wind, sun and erosion. We strive to maintain soil coverage using succession planting, mulching with hay and compost, chopping / dropping spent crops, and cover cropping. This emulates natural ecological systems which promotes healthy soil and biodiversity. This also conserves water and meditates drought conditions.
04
Feeding the soil with composts
We add composts of different kinds to maintain and increase soil health. Some composts are highly nutritious to replace nutrients lost in produce harvested. Some are inoculating composts meant to boost the bacterial, and fungi populations in the soil.
